Similarities and Sacrifices
by wishyfishy
Summary: On a mission gone wrong, Magnus and her team end up stuck in a house with an old woman and a strange man as dangerous abnormals are trying to get in. While trying to find a solution, Magnus's head starts to fill with queries about this odd man. Oneshot.


Disclaimer: SyFy and BBC basically own the sci-fi world. On TV at least. So why would I own Sanctuary and/or Doctor Who when they own practically everything else? It just doesn't make any sense.

Author's Note: For your information, Senator Allen G. Thurman was an actual person and he was almost vice president. The truth basically stops there. Everything else featured in this fanfic about him, his house, and his family is all of my own making.

The Sanctuary team's muffled footsteps were rapid, crushing every poor leaf that stood in their wake, and matching their heartbeat that pounded in their ears. Things had gone wrong. They were too late. One person had already died. And now they were being chased, literally running for their lives. This was not turning to be a good day.

"Look there's a house up there," stated Kate Freelander. "Might be able to give us shelter long enough for us to come up with a plan how to beat these beasties."

"It looks like its empty too," interjected Will Zimmerman.

"Good, we don't want anyone else to be in danger," replied Dr. Helen Magnus, quickly changing her pace and making a bee-line towards the house.

The other two followed her, the growls of the abnormals closely following. The house sat on a hill in a forest, tucked away from common view with only a dirt road leading up to its front doors. It was an old Victorian abode, who had obviously seen better days. Its paint was faded and peeling. Its windows were cracked. Its garden was over grown. It looked like a withered and ancient wealthy entrepreneur that had fallen on hard times and refused to get help, instead hiding itself away in the recesses of the forest to live out its life in peace, letting nature slowly take over and bring it to its death.

There were no lights on inside, and no cars in the driveway. It seemed that it was indeed empty. The trio rushed through the rotting front doors, ignoring the rusting plaque quietly stating the name of the house that they had just entered: _Senator_ _Allen G. Thurman's Former Residence. Museum Hours: Mon-Fri: 8am-9pm. Closed on Sunday and Saturday._

"Will, get the doors. Kate, the windows. There are probably staple guns in the pack. Use them. I'll get the back," ordered Magnus and without checking if the two were doing as they were told, she ran off to seal the back of the house.

She could already here the claws scratching on the decrepit wood siding. It would only be a few moments until the abnormals had surrounded the residence. They had to move quickly.

Not for the first time did Magnus wonder what she'd done wrong to get in this mess. It was a standard mission: humanely capture the abnormals and then transfer them to the Sanctuary. Only, things went wrong. There was a storm when they were about to fly out, so Magnus had to delay the flight until the storm passed. As a consequence, when they arrive in the Middle-of-Nowhere, Ohio, the abnormals had woken up from their century long hibernation and were feeding. They weren't able to save one poor hiker, arriving when the abnormals were feasting on his flesh. They tried to stun the creatures, but in the rush, they hadn't loaded the stun guns. The abnormals, done with the hiker, then began to chase and hunt them. They were like rabbits being preyed upon by hungry lions, and now they were hiding, trying to figure so out something to do that didn't include shooting the creatures.

The floorboards creaked underneath their rushed footsteps as they barricaded the doors and the windows with furniture, fallen shudders that must've been placed inside to protect them from the weather, or anything else they could find, using the staple guns to seal it all off. They needed to time to figure out a plan, but at the same time they couldn't hide forever, for the abnormals would just leave and look for other innocent people to munch on and Magnus wouldn't let that happen.

Suddenly a shout sounded from the front of the house were Kate and Will were located. Magnus hurried over too see what was causing the commotion, hoping that one of the abnormals hadn't broken in. When she arrived she found two other people in the room besides her team. One was an elderly woman, and the other a middle-aged man. Her eyebrows furrowed. The house was supposed to be empty, wasn't it?

"What's going on here?" she questioned.

"These two just appeared from upstairs. One of them about this place being a museum and not to touch anything…or something like that," replied Will.

"It's the former residence of Senator Allen G. Thurman. A museum and a historical sight. Everything here is original and very fragile. You hooligans need to stop moving things around. You're messing everything up," interjected the elderly woman.

"Well I have news for you, grandma. If you haven't already noticed time has already messed everything up. So we're not doing much by moving things around. Plus, we're trying to save your life here," argued Kate, the abnormals banging on the door to reinforce her point.

While the two were talking, Magnus noted that Will and Kate had finished barricading the front, but there were other parts in the house that would, with a sort amount of time, be discovered by the abnormals and used to get inside. After that, they would have no choice but to shoot them. She didn't want it to come to that. So, they needed to move fast. They could deal with the two strangers later.

"Drop it Kate. We need to finish securing the house," Magnus stated. "We'll deal with them later."

Kate took one look at Magnus, then back to the old woman, then back to Magnus and nodded. She hurried off to another part of the house, Will following her.

"Don't touch anything," said the elderly woman as they left. "All this stuff is older than you two put together! Stupid young people…They never listen…"

"What's going on?" asked the man, glancing at the door as another loud thumb sounded from it.

"We'll explain later. Right now, if you could help us. Please, we don't have much time," answered Magnus, already heading off to a different part of the house.

The man nodded and followed her help her, leaving the old woman to her mutterings.

)))))))

"I apologize for get for getting you two into this mess. We thought the house was empty. We wouldn't have led them here otherwise," stated Magnus.

They were huddled upstairs, listening to the pounding and scratching of the abnormals trying vainly to get in. The room was as decrepit as the rest of the house. Everything was faded and rotting, but at least it was semi clean, only the corners contained cobwebs and dust bunnies. The light was fading outside, causing the trees to cast long shadows against the house. Magnus had gotten a fire going in the old-fashioned fireplace, using chairs as firewood. They had managed to barricade all the openings downstairs, using whatever was at hand to the extreme dislike of the elderly woman.

The man was at the window, watching the abnormals. While Kate was at the door, leaning against the nearby wall, watching as Magnus and Will talked to the old woman who was seated in a chair next to the fireplace.

"Well, can't you read? It states clearly that this is a museum, which you three are unceremoniously destroying, I'll have you know. You should've known that there were people in here," huffily replied the old woman, crossing her arms as a grimace was etched on her face.

"Well no offence lady, but this place don't look like any museum I've been to. It looks more like an abandoned haunted house than some museum for some random Senator," voiced Kate.

"Money's coming in pretty soon. We're just waiting for the grant," answered the elderly woman.

"Anyway! Let's get back on topic, shall we?" said Will before Kate could retort, and then addressing the old woman. "We promise that we'll do everything in our power to keep you two save, okay? Trust me; we know what we're doing."

"Yeah, whatever…," the old woman muttered, settling herself in the chair.

"Okay, now that we got that settled with," began Magnus.

Her mind was racing. Finding out that these two people were here made everything more difficult. Things always got difficult when civilians got involved. They usually panicked easier, and didn't really understand abnormals for what they are. They usually thought they were monsters like in some movie and their main goal was to kill them. But that was not what they were here for. The abnormals outside might be trying to eat them, but Magnus was not going to murder them if she had any say in the matter. She took a deep breath. This was going to be a long night.

"Let us introduce ourselves. I'm Dr. Helen Magnus, the other two are my colleges, Dr. Will Zimmerman, and Kate Freelander," continued Magnus, pointing to each perspective person as she said their name. "And you two are?"

"I'm Kathleen Blackwood, the curator of this museum. I'm Senator Allen G. Thurman great-granddaughter," spoke the elderly woman like it was an important title.

She was a plumb woman, almost like the cliché of the sweet old grandmother, except for the almost permanent grimace that was etched in between a sea of wrinkles. Her dark eyes were slits in the middle of her face, while a thinning mob of silver hair sat dismissively on top of her head.

"Oh…you can just call me John Smith," offhandedly replied the man.

He was tall and thin as his spiky brown hair stood at attention on his cranium. He spoke with a British accent, and was adorned with a brown pin stripe suit, a long trench coat, and, curiously enough, a pair of converse. He was looking down at the abnormals, but not out of fright or anger like Magnus would expect to see, but out of intrigue and interest.

"So…uh what are those creatures exactly?" questioned John Smith.

"Um…," began Magnus, shocked at the amount of calm curiosity that this man was displaying. "They are a species called Hempoflias. They originate from the Western Hemisphere dating back all the way to the Mesozoic period. Today they are all but extinct, except for those ten outside."

"And…I'm guessing you want to capture them all alive to preserve the species?" responded John Smith, looking straight at Magnus.

Her eyes widened. Who was this man who was taking so much sudden, and seemingly sincere, interest in the abnormals that were currently trying to break down the door? He wasn't your usual person that was for sure. He didn't appear to be a least bit afraid or confused or shocked upon hearing about or seeing the abnormals like your typical person would be. It was almost as if he'd had contact with abnormals before, but by the amount of curiosity on his face, it didn't seem possible.

"Yes, that's exactly what we're trying to do," replied Magnus returning John Smith's gaze.

"We would've done it too, if it wasn't for that stupid storm…," muttered Kate.

"Well, yes," stated Magnus, taking her eyes away from Smith and setting her mind at the topic at hand. There wasn't time for pondering about this strange man. She had other, more important, things to think about. "But worrying about the past doesn't help us now. We need to start planning out how we are going to capture the Hempoflias."

"What are yah kids talking about?" interjected Kathleen Blackwood

"Weren't you paying attention, grandma?" answered Kate.

"I don't have to listen to everything ya'll jabber about," retorted Blackwood.

"Hey-"

"_Kate_," spoke Magnus, cutting off her employee. "Enough. If she doesn't want to listen, let her. We've got bigger things to focus our attention on." The last thing Magnus needed was Kate to start to bicker with this grumpy old woman when there were Hempoflias trying to break down the doors downstairs.

"_Fine_, boss…So…what _are_ we going to do about those beasties?" replied Kate with a sigh.

"Well, you can forget about Henry helping us," spoke Will, putting his cell phone back into his pocket. "I can't get a signal, and in any case, if we could contact Henry, he would probably be too far away to help us in time."

While Kate and Magnus had been talking, he had tried to get a signal from his cell, moving about the room waiting for any sign of phone service. He'd obviously had no luck.

Magnus mentally cursed. Things weren't looking good. "Well, since our stun guns aren't loaded and we don't have Henry to help us, we're going to have to use the materials around here to capture the Hempoflias," responded Magnus.

She looked around. There wasn't much here. There was the ancient wood of the furniture, some glass ornaments here and there, but other than that there wasn't much…They would have come up with _something_…

"Bummer that this place doesn't have electricity, otherwise we could shock them to knock 'em out," commented Kate.

Magnus mentally cursed again. Yes, having electricity would've helped. They figured out that this ancient house didn't have electricity when the sun was setting and, having finished barricading the bottom floor, were relocating to the second floor and they needed light. That was why that had to build that fire instead. This place didn't even have working gaslights.

"It does have electricity…technically," voiced Smith, stepping away from the window. "There's all the wiring for electricity but not all the outlets and switches and it's not connected to the grid. When they were building the house in the later years of the Senator's life, they planned to have electricity, but the Senator had died and shortly afterward the Thurman family went bankrupt. They opted for a cheap gaslight system instead."

"How do you know that?" questioned Will.

"Mrs. Blackwood is full of information if you know how the talk to her," John Smith replied with a grin on his face.

"You are a nice boy, Mr. Smith," added Blackwood almost lovingly.

"Wonderful. Then we can use the wires in the walls," stated Magnus, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"But what are we going to do with them? It's not like we have any source of power out here in the middle of the forest," interjected Will.

But Magnus had already thought of that. "How do get to town, Mrs. Blackwood?" she asked turning to the elderly woman.

"By car of course."

"But we didn't see any car when we ran in here," voiced Kate.

"That's 'cause it's in the garage at the back of the house, silly girl. The garage was added five decades after the house was built and is connected to the main building by a hallway that was built when it was," snapped Blackwood.

"Good, then we can use the car for power," stated Magnus.

"Well, I'm not a tech guy, but even I have doubts that could work," interjected Will.

"It may not, but it's going to have to work, Will. We don't have many options here. I want those Hempoflias alive."

(((((

"So…what do you three do exactly?" asked Smith.

He had gone with Magnus to check out the car and figure out some way to use the energy from it to take down the Hempoflias without causing them any lethal damage. If Magnus really thought about it, she had no idea why she agreed to let John Smith come with her. He had offered, saying he was good with electronics, and she allowed him to come along while Will and Kate worked on getting the wiring out of the walls and Blackwood watched them angrily. If she was honest though, she would have to say that it was her curiosity that made her permit John Smith to be her company. It was not every day that she met someone interested and not afraid of the abnormals that she worked with.

"We work with a network called the Sanctuary. I'm afraid I can't give you any more information than that," replied Magnus mysteriously.

As much as she was curious about this man, rules were rules. The less people knew about them, the better off they would be. It was a sad state of affairs that Magnus wish wasn't true, but it was. There were people out there that could and would be a threat and the best way to prevent that was to keep as much information as possible out of the public eye. There was also the added fact that much of that public wasn't ready for the truth.

"Okay, okay. Fair enough. But I am guessing that your network does deal with those kinds creatures that are currently trying to kill us?" pressed on Smith.

"They're called abnormals, and yes. We do work with them," answered Magnus.

"_Abnormals_…" he repeated as if he was trying out how the word felt on his tongue. "Brilliant. So judging by the name these creatures are of Earth origin, right? Or at least you think they are. Because if they originated from a different planet, you would probably call them _aliens_, not abnormals…Like I said, _brilliant_!"

There was a spark in his dark eyes that could be compared to the light in a child's eyes a Christmas. The interest was suddenly offset with a crash coming from the boarded up window they were currently passing. Both Smith and Magnus jumped at the sound and the appearance of a reptile hand out of the hole it had created through the wood. Before any of them had time to react though, it grasped Magnus's arm and held so tight that pain streamed all the way to her finger tips.

She instinctively reached for her gun on her waist, but she stopped herself. She didn't want to hurt the Hempoflia if there was any other way to handle the situation.

"Hempoflias are reptile based creatures right?" questioned Smith out of the blue.

She glanced at him. Once again, there was no fright on his face, only determination and fascination. She nodded. Shortly afterwards she screamed as the abnormal began to pull like it was trying to yank her out through the tiny hand hole, causing even more pain to sear throughout her arm.

Only a second later, John Smith had taken out some sort of long metal device and pointed it at the Hempoflia's hand. The device began to buzz while faintly glowing blue. Then an agonizing ringing started up in her ears as the air around them seemed to pulse. A quick moment afterward, the abnormal screeched and released Magnus's arm.

She gasped as she moved away from the wall and the buzzing from Smith's device stopped. She clutched her arm, feeling herself for any bone fractures, and breathing hard from the adrenalin all the while.

"What is that?" she asked looking up a John Smith. "It seems like it let out some sort of sonic pulse."

She had never before seen anything like the pen-like device in Smith's hand. Sure the tech that Henry was coming up with everyday was getting more and more advanced, and after knowing Tesla and Watson for so long, there was very little that she didn't know about, technology wise. But this thing that Smith had was something unknown to her. And not knowing about something peaked her interest more than anything else.

"It did. Since you said that Hempoflia's are based off reptiles, a sonic pulse is most likely to cause it enough pain to back away from its prey. Wasn't sure if it would work, 'cause I'm no expert here, but it did…You alright?" responded John Smith turning towards Magnus, slight worry in his eyes.

"Yes…fine. Just a bad bruise that's all," replied Magnus. There were no fractures to the bone as far as she could tell. It could've been worse. "We should seal that hole up before the Hempoflias come back."

"Right," said Smith, who immediately put away his device and began looking for something to close the hole.

The sound of splintering wood later, he came back with a seat of a wooden chair. Moments later he and Magnus used it to seal the window again, utilizing the staple gun her and her team had used to barricade the opening before.

))))

"You never did say what that device is exactly," noted Magnus as they continued on their way to the car, making sure to stay away from the windows and doors this time.

"Sonic screwdriver. Never leave home without it," replied Smith, strolling along side her with his hands in his pockets.

"Never heard of it."

"Yeah well…," he began, scratching the back of his head and wincing slightly at the awkwardness of the situation. "It's kind of ahead of this time period…I think…I'm not really from here so I can't say for sure."

_Intriguing_…Queries about this man were starting to multiply in Magnus's mind. First his interest in abnormals, and now this strange 'sonic screwdriver,' not to mention the unusual things he was implying. John Smith was turning out to be a very peculiar and captivating man.

"_So_…you're originally from England, judging by your accent, right?" commented Smith.

"Yes. Born and raised. And judging by yours, you are too," replied Magnus.

"Yeah, well, hard to miss that accent. But…I don't really know why I have the accent. I'm not really from the England, but I guess it's because I spend so much time there…I don't know. London just seems to appeal to me."

"Where were you from originally?"

"Somewhere that's not the UK that's for sure…but enough about me. Tell me more about these abnormals…and you and your team. Not everyone deals with the things that go bump in the night."

Magnus couldn't help herself; she chuckled and smirked at this. _And not everyone is so curious about abnormals and the Sanctuary either._ "I don't think so…an explanation of my work would take a good chunk of time, which we don't have at the moment."

Even though she easily stepped around that subject in a fashion that gave nothing important away, there was still a strange urge to tell Smith about the Sanctuary, at least the things that weren't all that secret if you knew where to look. Beside the unusual and intriguing nature of the man, there was also an aura surrounding him, something in his eyes that said "you can trust me." It was odd and it only made Magnus's interest in John Smith grow.

)))))

It was a minute or two later when they reached the garage, which was exactly where Blackwood said it would be. Inside, sitting huddled like an ancient penguin bracing against the cold, was an old grey 1970s Volkswagen Beetle.

Staring at the elderly vehicle, the plan that Magnus had spontaneously formulated only a short while ago, was starting to feel a tad impractical if not totally impossible. Why she ever thought she could use ancient wiring and a practically equally ancient car to shock the Hempoflias into unconsciousness was beyond her.

"I don't know what I was thinking. It must've been my eagerness to get this solved quickly and for it to be the least harmful to all parties. We can't do this. And even if my plan could work, it would take time, which we are unfortunately lacking at the moment," muttered Magnus, more to herself than to Smith who was right next to her.

But then something dawned on her as it always did when things were looking their bleakest.

"Wait," she began turning to John Smith. "Your device. It can emit sonic pluses, right? Can you control the intensity of them?"

"Yep. Can pretty much do anything with it," the man replied.

"What if…What if we can connect it to the car's speaker system and use it to amplify the pluses in order to knock out the Hempoflias humanely?"

"Oh! That's brilliant! We would have to trap them somehow because otherwise their natural instinct would be to run. And I can fine tune it so that there is the least harm to the abnormals. I don't know why I didn't think of that before! You're…good…you're really good," stated Smith, his quirky grin back on his face.

Magnus couldn't help but smile at his praise.

"And," began the man again, taking off his coat and heading towards the Volkswagen. "With this plan, I'll have everything ready in…oh…'bout 5 minutes, probably 4 depending on the state of the interior wiring."

"Great. In the mean time, Will, Kate, and I will prepare the trap," responded Magnus.

And with that the both of them set off to work.

))))

When Magnus reached the upstairs room where her team and Blackwood were located, there seemed to be some sort of fight breaking out.

"Kate! Please calm down!" pleaded Will.

"I'll calm down when she calms down and lets us do our jobs. Now grandma," snapped Kate rounding on Blackwood. "Give us back our stuff!"

It seemed that Blackwood, in desperation, had somehow managed to capture Kate and Will's packs and was refusing to let them have them back. This action was obviously in correlation with the fact that they were going to tear up the walls for decades old wiring, and the old woman, being the 'curator,' was trying to save the museum from further destruction.

"Okay, I didn't want to do this, but," said Kate, taking the gun from her belt and pointing at Blackwood.

"_Kate_! Enough!"

The all turned around as Magnus walked into the room.

"Doc!" exclaimed Kate in slight surprise. Nevertheless she kept the gun steadily pointed at Blackwood. "This old lady is trying to stop us from-"

"I know. I figured that much. Now _lower_ the gun," ordered Magnus sternly.

After a moment's hesitation, Kate did as she was told. "But what about the wiring?"

"Forget it. Change of plans."

"Why? What happened?" questioned Will.

"It was a silly idea. One that if possible would take too much time," replied Magnus

She went over to the window and glanced down at the Hempoflias. They were starting to get antsy. The little run in she had with one of them had refueled their hunger, but it wouldn't take much longer for them to give up and start looking for unsuspecting hikers and she couldn't let that happen.

"John Smith is working with Blackwood's car to send a low frequency sonic pulse, using a device of his, to knock the abnormals out. All we need to do is set up a trap," continued Magnus stepping away from the window and addressing her team.

"What did you say about my car? What is Mr. Smith doing?" queried Blackwood, relaxing her grip on the packs now that the walls and the wiring were safe from harm.

"Nothing grandma, just-"

"_Kate_," Will muttered warningly, cutting off his coworker before she could say anything else.

But something Blackwood said, that caught Magnus's attention, something that, before she could stop herself, she began chasing after. "Did John Smith say why he was here?" she questioned.

"Said he was curious," responded the elderly woman.

"Heaven knows why," Kate murmured underneath her breath.

"Did he say anything about himself?" Magnus pressed on, ignoring her employee.

"That he was from far away. No wonder, with that accent of his…"

"Anything else?"

"Magnus, come on. Let's go," interrupted Will.

She looked at her colleague. He was right. What was she doing? This wasn't the time to inquire after this strange John Smith. She had bigger things to be concerned with. There would always be time later to find out more about him. Right now she had to focus on the Hempoflias.

"Yes of course…Sorry…Well, I was thinking we could-"

"He said…," began Blackwood, cutting Magnus off. "He said he was lost. Yet he didn't seem too worried about it. Said everything was fixed up and he was just going to leave when he saw the museum and deiced to take a tour. He seemed like an eccentric and I don't care for eccentrics but I gave him one anyways, and that was when you lot showed up."

_Lost_…What did she mean? But before she unconsciously pursue the topic further, Magnus stopped herself by clearing her head and trying to store her queries in the crevasses of her mind so that she could focus on the topic at hand. That worked…somewhat.

"Um…," began Magnus turning to her employees. "Will, what do you know about sewing?"

))))

"Do you think it will work?" questioned Kate.

"It's going to have to. We really have only one shot at this. I doubt the Hempoflias will stick around much longer," replied Magnus.

"Well then we better get it right then, shouldn't we?" commented Will.

"We better. Or I don't know what we're going to do."

They were all heading down to the garage, curtains weighting them down like Sisyphus's rock. That is, everyone except Blackwood whom they had managed to calm down just enough for them to take the curtains off all the windows and quickly stitch them together. The elderly woman was now lagging behind, muttering curses like an ancient witch of story books.

On their way down, Magnus had time to let her protection slip and allow the queries about John Smith back into her head. He was a curious man…He did seem like an eccentric. But his intelligence and curiosity were something to be admired. Plus there was just something about his manner that appealed to Magnus. She couldn't describe it. There was something unique about Smith, and she was itching to find it out. Pieces of his puzzle keep on appearing, but she was still missing some and there was no corner piece to start out with. She hadn't been this perplexed in a while. It made her feel invigorated.

"I recognize that look," commented Will, gazing at his boss with an amused smile etched on his face.

"What do you mean?" questioned Magnus turning to him.

"I had the same exact expression on my face when I first met you. Curiosity as deep as Bill Gate's pocket book, interest as strong as steel, and above all relief that there finally is something that you know near to nothing about. John Smith actually reminds me a lot of you in that kind of mysterious and knowing way you guys present yourselves," he replied.

She had never really thought about that. She was always so busy with missions and running the Sanctuary that she rarely thought of how she appeared to the unaware populace. But now that Magnus contemplated the matter, Will was right. The resemblance between her and Smith was quite shocking. She didn't really know what to think of it, to tell the truth.

"Leave it to a psychologist to notice the similarities," responded Magnus with a bemused smile.

"Well that is part of the reason why you hired me."

Their conversation stopped when the sound of the Hempoflias' scratching had reached its peak. They had reached the garage, arms aching. Velvet curtains were not the lightest thing in the world to carry. They all set them down with a huff and a sigh of relief once inside the room. Magnus noticed that Smith was still in the car, working with wiring, the peculiar buzzing and blue light emanating from his sonic screwdriver as from before.

"I almost got it! There!" he exclaimed. And with that last statement, John Smith popped out of the car, face gleaming. "Ready for business! All I have to do is point sonic screwdriver at it and the car's audio will transmit the sonic pulse. Would've had it sooner, but I'm a bit rusty on 1970s electrics."

"Good, now you can help us set up," said Magnus, throwing him a bundle of velvet. "And let's be quick about it."

))))

The time had come. Everything was in place. Kate was standing in position at the garage door, prepared to open it at Magnus's signal. The curtains were suspended above, ready to be pulled down at the correct time. Everyone else, including Magnus herself, were stationed close to the door leading to the rest of the house, but not near enough so as the Hempoflias wouldn't notice them. She would rather not have her, Will, and Smith used as live bait, but there wasn't much time to come up with something else.

"Okay, ready? On my signal," began Magnus. "Three…Two…One…_Now_, Kate!"

With a few swift movements the employee opened the door, allowing a rush of Hempoflias in. They headed straight for Magnus and her team.

"Will!" she exclaimed, indicating it's time for him to drop the curtains on top of the abnormals.

Will pulled the cord and let the velvet fall. But something went wrong. Magnus had underestimated their speed. Only a handful of Hempoflias were captured by the fabric and the rest were now closer than ever to her and her team.

To make matters worse, Blackwood chose that exact moment to stumble into the garage.

"What in hell is going on here? Are you doing something to my car? Now I can stand you destroying the house, but not my car!" exclaimed Blackwood, rushing towards her Beetle.

"_No_!" both Magnus and Smith cried out at the same time.

The elderly woman had now attracted the attention of a couple of Hempoflias and they were hungrily hurrying over to her at an astonishing rate. Meanwhile the other abnormals were still charging towards Magnus and her team and those that were captured underneath the curtains were started to rip through the fabric. Magnus knew there was only one way to handle this situation and it broke her heart as she took out her gun.

"Smith, the sonic pulse!" she ordered, aiming at the Hempoflia that was closes to Blackwood. "We still might be able to save a few if you act fast!"

The man looked at her for a flash second. And in the moment she could see the pain, the sorrow, the determination in his eyes that were reflected in hers. He understood what she was going to do and why. He could relate and in that instant Magnus could see his age, not only in time but experience. An age that exceeded hers by lifetimes. An age that no human could possible achieve.

But the moment he turned away, Smith was once again the eccentric middle-aged man that everyone wondered about, but never could seem to pin down.

That glance made Magnus's mind and heart race, but before she could allow herself to be lost in her ponderings, she turned back to the attacking Hempoflias and pulled the trigger.

The shot rang throughout the tiny space and landed in the middle of the abnormal's chest, causing it to collapse in an instant. She had just killed a member of one of the rarest species on planet Earth, and there were still five more to go.

Taking their boss's lead, Will and Kate began shooting as well. Meanwhile, Smith, following Magnus's orders aimed his sonic screwdriver at the car, and shortly after a sonic pulse emanated from Beetle's speakers, causing Hempoflias to cower in pain and back away. However, those that were captured, who were unable to do that because of the weight of the velvet, instead began to shrink under the throbbing ache of the sonic waves. Magnus and her team kept shooting though, until every last free Hempoflia was dead and unable to hurt anyone.

Once every abnormal was either lifeless or unconscious, a strained silence radiated throughout the garage. Blackwood stood trembling and confused. Will and Kate began looking around as they put their guns back on their belts, unable to look at the destruction they had just brought to the rare species. Magnus, on the other hand, was staring grimly at the corpses, thoughts swarming her head.

A weight was growing in her chest as she watched the muddy abnormal blood start to pool. She kept on telling herself that she did the right thing. Innocents, including Blackwood, Smith, and her team, would've died. She had to pull her gun. Even if she shot to wound, it was in the nature of a Hempoflia that once the prey was in sight it wouldn't stop until they or their prey was dead. It hurt her to do it, but horrible things had to be done for the greater good, no matter the cost.

In the corner of her eye she could see John Smith standing there beside her, a mirror image of her expression on his face. A thought crossed her mind: Will was right. They were alike. That glance into his eyes had proved that. But there was still more to him, more than what she had seen, much more.

))))

"…We're at the Senator Allen G. Thurman Museum. It's supposedly his former house or something. The place looks like a dump…Yeah, prepare for transport for four Hempoflias…Yeah I'll tell yah what happened later…Okay, Henry…See yah in a few," finished Will, closing his cell phone.

Thanks to the boosted signal provided by Smith's device, Will had been able to contact Henry once Blackwood had recovered from her hysterics and everyone else had collected themselves after the shock of killing such a rare species.

"What did Hank say?" questioned Kate, looking away from Blackwood towards her coworker.

The two were having a pleasant conflict. Apparently, the old woman felt better fighting with someone.

"He's about ten minutes away. And is very confused as to why there are four Hempoflias instead of ten. Told him that we'll explain later," replied Will with a sigh.

Magnus listened in as her employees continued to talk, feeling Will's occasional worried gaze one her back. She had torn away a barricade from a window and was now staring out of it. The night was cool on her face as the dark creatures of the wood called out in a chorus of tones, apparently singing to the twinkling blanket of stars in the sky.

Not that she noticed. Magnus was lost in deep and complicated thoughts, thoughts about the difference between the value of a human life and an abnormal life, about the decaying abnormal races, about her life, and about John Smith.

"You know, Allen G. Thurman was not only a Senator but he almost became vice president under Grover Cleveland," commented Smith coming up next to Magnus.

"Did you learn that from Blackwood?" she questioned, turning towards him, not startled at all by his sudden appearance.

"Yep…well I knew it before hand. I'm good with history," replied John Smith his quirky smile there but somewhat faded.

"Me as well," responded Magnus. _I lived through it; history's my life._ She turned back to the window and stared off into the distance. "Who are you?"

It was a silly question if one took it out of context. But considering the queries swarming in her head, it appeared to make sense. That one single question seemed to sum up all those complicated thoughts and present them in one neat package.

John Smith sighed heavily and leaned out of windowsill, taking in the cool night air. "I'm sorry. I can't tell you…I'm not from here, and the wrong word at the wrong place at the wrong time could spell disaster. I don't want that to happen…"

She turned back to look at him. There was a faraway look in his face. A mixture between calm and distress in his eyes. The questions about him grew and she felt like her head was going to burst with them. There was so much to ask him. Where was he from? Why was he lost? Why couldn't he answer her question? _Who was he?_

But strangely enough Magnus didn't ask anymore. Her mind kept coming back to Will's statement. Smith and her were similar, and she could tell that as much as she wanted to question him, there was no way she was getting any straight answers no matter how hard she tried. As a result she gave up and turned back to the view out the window.

So the two stood there in comfortable silence, staring at the darkness and the stars, both waiting for life once again swept them off their feet.


End file.
